One of the jobs of meteorologists isn't just conveying the weather to people, but also risks involved and also the probability of this risks. We don't do this to sensationalise, after all it's more important you get a scientific balanced view in a way you can understand and then make your own informed choices.
A couple of weeks ago, the GFS spat out some model output suggesting 40C in the UK. Oh how we laughed.... Like, seriously GFS, this is the UK, now pull yourself together. But the GFS stayed true to itself and continued to show the risk of this temperature being reached until the point the ensembles were also coming into play showing this as a possibility.
At this point we mentioned this to family and friends just to give them a heads up. "40C is an exceptional heat" we would say. "I saw 40C in Benidorm once with your Auntie Sandra!" would come the reply.
But there is a difference. It's marginal things like you probably sat in the shade for most of it, had air conditioning in your bedroom and hotel for overnight and also perhaps a nice pool to take a dip in before heading to the pool bar to cool down with an iced drink?
And what about the fridges and freezers? In the UK, most appliances operate fine between 10-32C, above this and the poor old compressor goes flat out to keep the device cold which explains why you might find supermarkets having problems with fridges and freezers during heatwaves.
40C is also warmer than your own body temperature, even more marked if you aren't wearing the clothes to allow for this. So you can see how a combination of these things means that 40C in Benidorm and 40C in Basildon are two different things.
Auntie Sandra will be fine though, she has a cold drink and a book, nothing else needed...
METEOROLOGIST : MARSH
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